


There Might Be Somebody After Me

by Kerink



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Implied Eridan Ampora/Feferi Peixes - Freeform, M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Past Relationship(s), Quadrant Confusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 10:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4301871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerink/pseuds/Kerink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’ve never even kissed someone before.”</p><p> </p><p>Karkat’s lips pursed together tightly, his dull fangs biting them closed. Eridan’s gaze turned down but Karkat’s never left his violet face. “What the actual fuck.” Karkat hissed, his ears twitching.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t say it like that!” Eridan shouted, his eyes darting up to Karkat’s. But he lost his nerve and looked at the ceiling, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just, you know, you’re right. We’re all goin’ to die here an’ I’ve never even kissed anyone before-”</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Might Be Somebody After Me

Eridan had entered the meteor in a flurry of angel feathers and oozing black blood. He was panting harder than a maroonblood running from the trolls that would cart it away to the slauterhive. And despite him being more a mess than Karkat had ever seen any troll before, no one approached him. No one posed questions, there were no hugs, there were no pats on the back. Perhaps that was due to the fact that he was only slightly upheaved in clothes and hair, it was in his eyes he was broken.

When Noir came and chased them off, it was only Eridan who was left unsurprised, and it was only Eridan who did not scramble in a mad dash to fight. He stood by the runes of their prize, bathed in the violet glow, watching Aradia spawn and respawn, watching Sollux blast his psionics at the enemy, watch the others holding their melee weapons waiting for him to come within arm’s reach. As Jack cut down Aradia after Aradia, coming in for the trolls on the ground, he was the last to enter her teleportelizer.

And when he did, when all the friends were accounted for within The Veil, he slunk off into the lab without so much as a word. Still trailing tarred feathers.

Karkat didn’t go to look for him until every troll was given a respite block and a computer, until every wound was bandaged, until they had grouped off to catch up and Sollux snuck off to see what processing power the computers had, until adrenalin drained trolls began to nap. Karkat picked his way through the cold, winding halls, following the feathers until they ran dry and he had only Eridan’s scent to lead him to where the prince sat. He was in one of the private blocks, his cape in his lap. He was picking at the half-congealed blood splattered on him. He didn’t pause even when Karkat did, the later waiting in the doorway to be greeted.

“What?” came his cold acknowledgment, with only the slightest quirk of his head to show Karkat that he would indeed be talked to.

Karkat crossed his arms across his chest, shoulders rounding to his ears. “I wanted to check up on you,” he said, lip twitching slightly to bare a fang should the need arise. “You ran off right after head count. I figured after you spent so much of your precious time killing those fucking angels that you’d be tuckered out emotionally and clawing up my pant leg like some sort of freshly hatched meowbeast, but even after all your bitching about being left alone on LOWAA you're here hiding your goddamn mug.” He paused and crossed the block, kneeling down next to Eridan. “So I just… You know… Wanted to know what the fuck, man? This isn’t like you.”

Eridan paused for a moment, still not looking at his companion. “You’re not my moirail. I don’t owe you a fuckin’ thing.” His words were biting, pained, but with that same haughty air that lent well to getting punched across the nose. It was the same tone Karkat had always read in his text, as though his wavy quirk were in fact waving off the concerns of others.

Because he’s high and Karkat’s low and Karkat knows he’ll never be as good as Feferi. Even after staying up hours into the morning on Trollian with him, listening to his woes about what’s expected of him in life, after consoling him when Vriska burnt the bridge that was their caliginous affair, when he realized that he was cheating on Feferi and that he wasn’t as upset as he should be considering he never really felt as pale as he should have. Despite all the laughter and all the advice and after all the fights that culminated in Eridan crawling on his belly back to Karkat, threatening that if Karkat didn’t delete the logs of his apology there would be hell to pay without him realizing that Karkat knew how to restore files from the recycle bin.

After everything they’d been through, Eridan still had the gall to sit there before him and accuse Karkat of not being his moirail. Karkat floundered for a moment, lips pursed and eyes wide. Then he stood and toed Eridan’s side in more than a nudge but not quite a kick. “You’re an ass, you know that? All I’ve ever done is sit and let you cry your cheating tears all over me and now you're pushing me away! What's wrong? Can’t look me in the eye and do it?” He paused, waiting for a reply. When none came he continued, “Do you finally feel like the privileged brat you are? When it’s some anonymous blooded nobody across the fucking intergrub it’s fine, but even after Alternia's been blown to hell you're too scared of how people will look at you if your have your hand in with a mutant?”

Eridan remained silent, hunched over despite his usual need for perfect posture. Karkat snarled and turned on his heel. “Whatever. Stay here and rot for all I care. Maybe Feferi will realize how perfect you are and come crawling back to you. Or maybe one of all those desperate fuckers will realize it’s the end of the goddamn world and may as well start pailing and jamming before we run out of air and this nowhere rock becomes our tomb.”

“The angels were right,” came the heated reply.

“What?” Karkat snapped, turning back towards Eridan.

“The angels were right.”

“No I fucking heard you. What’s that supposed to mean?”

Finally Eridan looked to Karkat, his brows knit and a deep frown on his tired face. “What the fuck do you think it means, Kar? Turn on your think pan: The angels were right.” Karkat met him with a neutral look. “About the end game. About Noir. About this fuckin’-” he gestured around vaguely, “-this whole thing.” He stood, letting his cape fall to the ground. His expression was a mix of sadness and anger that made him look constipated. “They said he would come an’ he did. They said we would be trapped on this fuckin’ rock for half a sweep ‘til gods would come. We’d be stuck until two sweeps was up an’ that in that time more than half would meet our end. We’d be stuck, dyin’ an’ waitin’ until the Lord came an’ claimed us!”

“What are you on?” Karkat interrupted.

But Eridan powered through as though he didn’t. With a grand sweep of his arm and a pained look to the heavens he said: “An’ here we are! Stuck waitin’ for whatever’s goin’ to happen to happen an’ there’s not a damn thing any a us can do for it cause I didn’t fuckin’ stay.”

Karkat's shoulders twitched in a half shrug that left his arms sort of flopping uselessly at his sides. “Nothing’s going to happen,” he grunted.

“But they were _right_!” Eridan stressed the finally word, hissing it through barred fangs as he looked desperately to Karkat.

Karkat sighed heavily, blowing all the air from the bottom of his lungs. He pinched his brow with one arm folded across his chest. “Look, Eridan, I’ve never let a single fucking thing get to you in the past right?”

“No but-”

“No,” Karkat stressed, letting his hand fall down from his face to rest with the other, “I haven’t. I’m not going to let anything get out of hand now either.”

“Kar look-” Karkat opened his mouth to object and Eridan slapped his hand over it. “Let me fuckin’ say somethin’, fuck! Kar look, I know you mean all well an’ good but the past was advice an’ shit. This is real combat, this is the end a fuckin’ nights for fuck’s sake. Your advice isn’t really goin’ to go far here.”

Karkat tore the hand from his mouth, holding Eridan’s wrist tightly as he glowered up at the taller troll. “You don’t think I’m combat ready because I am fucking combat ready, Eridan Ampora. Just because I don’t have some fancy god weapon passed down from four fucking billion sweeps ago doesn’t mean I can’t knock the head off of anyone who tries to come near you!”

Eridan flinched back slightly, the skin under his glasses turning purple and his eyes going wide.

“You or anyone else-!” Karkat quickly tacked on.

“I think I liked the other one better.” Karkat gave Eridan’s wrist a threatening squeeze and the boy hissed. “Alright, alright just fuckin’-” Eridan pulled his wrist free and rubbed at the mark. “That hurt.”

With a snort Karkat shoved Eridan’s shoulder. “Delicate highblood body all bruised up from my vicious assault? You’re pathetic.”

Eridan blushed again. “That didn’t make any fuckin’ sense, Kar! If it was a vicious attack then anyone would bruise, but if you’re tryin’ ta imply that I’m a pampered cuttlefish then your assault would have to be nothin’ more than a gentle shoosh.”

Karkat reached his hand up and pat Eridan’s cheek lightly. “Shoosh, then.”

Eridan swat his hand away and it was his turn to shove Karkat. “That wasn’t an open invitation! What’s with all this affection an’ callin’ me pathetic an’ sayin’ you’re goin’ to protect me, anyway? Fuck off with all a that!”

“Well clearly you need some form of help, and it’s not like you’re offering yourself up to psychiatric-”

“Oh fuck right the fuck off Kar!” Eridan stormed around to his cape and picked it up, fiddling with it for a moment before swinging it back over his shoulders. “I’m fine, everythin’ is fuckin’ rainbows an’ fakey fake magic! Are we done here?”

Karkat snorted, amused with his wrigglerish display. “Sure,” he said.

“Good,” Eridan huffed, marching past the other. “An’ by the way,” he added, brushing their shoulders together as he paused to speak, “if anyone would be protectin’ anyone here in this hypothetical pityfest a desperate assholes spendin’ their last few precious breaths on fuckin’ for the sake a fuckin’, it’d be me protectin’ you not the other way around. Are we clear?”

“Clear,” Karkat snorted.

“Is somethin’ funny to you?” Eridan hissed, knocking their sides together again.

Karkat turned away and made back for the door. “No. And when the time comes that I become a desperate asshole, now I know who to call.” He stopped and turned to look back at Eridan. “Provided you can pull your gargantuan bulge out of your own waste chute for five goddamn seconds.”

Eridan’s fins flared. “Do you want to fuckin’ go, Kar, 'cause we can fuckin’ go!”

“Go as in fight or as in fuck?” Karkat raised a brow and in all but a second Eridan was in his face. The two boys stood for a second. Eridan looked like he wanted to shout something, but his eyes danced and his mouth opened and closed like the fish on land he was and nothing became of the grid lock.

Until Eridan muttered: “I’ve never even kissed someone before.”

Karkat’s lips pursed together tightly, his dull fangs biting them closed. Eridan’s gaze turned down but Karkat’s never left his violet face. “What the actual fuck.” Karkat hissed, his ears twitching.

“Don’t say it like that!” Eridan shouted, his eyes darting up to Karkat’s. But he lost his nerve and looked at the ceiling, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just, you know, you’re right. We’re all goin’ to die here an’ I’ve never even kissed anyone before-”

“Dude!” Karkat hissed, taking a step back.

“Kar this is important!”

“No, no, fuck that, fucking- no!”

“Kar-!” Eridan grabbed the front of his turtleneck.

Karkat grabbed Eridan’s hands. “Look I’ve never kissed anyone either, it isn’t that fucking important it’s just a thing!” He tried to push the other away. “You’re really going the other way here! We’re fucking pale!”

Eridan pulled Karkat back. “We’re not pale,” he hissed. “I already said that!”

Karkat’s vascular organ skipped and his teeth grit. He remained quiet as their eyes locked again, only now Eridan dipped in and pressed their lips together. Their eyes never left each other’s as Eridan worked to elicit some sort of response from the other boy.

It was a moment or two before Karkat stopped trying to inch his face away, stopped trying to push Eridan’s hands from his shirt. It was an even longer moment before Karkat began to return the kiss, letting his eyes close. Eridan’s hand released his shirt and their fingers intertwined. There was a beat and Karkat broke away, letting their joined hands hang between them.

Karkat looked down at the ground, snarling despite his blush.

“Wow,” Eridan breathed, giving Karkat’s hands a squeeze.

“Yeah,” Karkat quietly agreed.

“So,” Eridan cleared his throat. “How did you want to do this?”

Karkat looked back up at him. “Do what?” he growled.

“Do the desperate fuckin’?”

Karkat’s eyes went wide and he pulled his hands away from Eridan’s to launch a swift punch to the highblood’s gut. “Bye, asshole!” he said before hustling out of the block.

Eridan fell to his knees, letting out a wheezing sort of keen, his gills flaring to try to catch a breath. “It was a fuckin’ joke, Kar!” he shouted after him.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm also on twitter (kerinky) & tumblr (kerink)


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